No one ever enjoyed summer like Jane Birkin Maybe we should all take a page from her book
Enjoying summer is an art. First and foremost, you have to relax, stop thinking about work, and allow yourself only moments of pure delight and then you have to wander, letting the sea breeze guide your movements throughout the warm season. To do all of this properly, you need to pare your wardrobe down to the bare essentials: a T-shirt, a pair of trousers, a swimsuit of course, and a pair of shoes to slip on carelessly and toss into your bag before heading out to the rocks. Which is why no one, in the last fifty years, has enjoyed summer better than Jane Birkin, with her wicker basket and her distinctly French nonchalance.
Whether caught by the paparazzi on the streets of Saint-Tropez, making a television appearance, or starring in a scene on the big screen, Jane Birkin's style continues to influence generation after generation, summer after summer. Because no summer wardrobe will ever surpass that of the star of La Piscine (yes, we're still not over her little checked mini dress).
Blow-Up and Slogan
Perhaps the real secret behind Jane Birkin's style is the era in which she made her name on the big screen. From the '60s to the '80s, the actress always managed to channel the energy of each decade into a single look. Take Blow-Up, Antonioni's 1966 film: a pair of coloured tights, a blue-and-green striped A-line dress, and a thick blonde fringe were all Birkin needed to shoot to stardom. Not to mention the topless scene, an emblem of an era and its young people ready to break every sartorial and cultural convention that had come before them.
Later, in Slogan (1969), Pierre Grimblat's film in which Birkin stars alongside her new partner Serge Gainsbourg, that very short, dark dress with three-quarter-length sleeves, worn barefoot with a scarf knotted at the neck, perhaps anticipated the stylistic energy that would define the 1970s more accurately than the runways of the time. And she went even further at the film's premiere, wearing a sheer black knit mini dress from which dangled a key necklace matching Gainsbourg's, metallic mary janes with a barely-there heel, and that iconic wicker basket that made history. Ready for a premiere, ready for the beach.
La Piscine
It is in La Piscine that Jane Birkin gives her very best, both in terms of acting and wardrobe. In Jacques Deray's film, it is always the Anglo-French star's looks that prove most memorable, even appearing alongside two hypnotically charismatic stars like Romy Schneider and Alain Delon. Jane Birkin needs very little to make us green with envy: that drop-waist checked dress, a white bikini tied with thick jewelled rings, a crochet cover-up, and finally oversized tortoiseshell sunglasses with round lenses. Each of her outfits is so wonderful that you almost forget about the film's drama entirely.
Jane Birkin at the Beach
One could talk for hours about Jane Birkin's on-screen style, adding in chronological order her wardrobe in Trop Jolies Pour Être Honnêtes (1972), or the more exuberant and refined looks in Evil Under the Sun (1982), with psychedelic-print silk scarves and charming parasols.
But the true proof of how the actress was the greatest it-girl the world has ever seen comes from Saint-Tropez, where Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg used to spend their summers. It was there that Birkin truly excelled, with all-white looks, T-shirts casually knotted at the waist, sundresses covered in sequins, and plunging necklines adorned with chunky accessories.
What made Jane Birkin's style a constant source of inspiration from the 1960s onwards was her ability to combine sensuality and practicality with admirable ease. All it took was a pair of red ballet flats to elevate a minimal look, patchwork flared denim trousers or a broderie anglaise crop top to make the classic blue-jeans-white-shirt combination a little more interesting. Perhaps this summer we should take a leaf out of her book and try to approach our choices with greater serenity — from our everyday outfits to how we want to face the day. Birkin, for instance, almost always chose to go barefoot by the pool, which doesn't sound bad at all.